The SOPA and PIPA protests were successful because we all took part, as a community. As Aaron Swartz put it, everybody “made themselves the hero of their own story.” We can set a date, but we need all of you, the users of the Internet, to make it a movement.

Do you support the NSA's bulk data collection practice?*

Yes

No

Email*

Story continues below

Go Beyond the Two-Sided Narrative! Get IVN’s weekly
round-up of news and information for independent-minded voters in
your inbox.

Referencing the Internet blackouts that took place in 2012, where over 7,000 websites — including Wikipedia and Google — protested anti-piracy legislation being considered by Congress. The Day We Fight Back movement hopes to mobilize a similar audience.

“The NSA spying issue is really kind of touching that same community in the same way, because it is that same sense of the government trampling on this very important and valuable resource.”

With 53 percent of Americans opposing the National Security Agency’s practices of mass surveillance, the movement has already gained traction on sites such as Reddit, with a subreddit devoted to news and information on the online movement.

Other sites planning on protesting the NSA include Tumblr, Reddit, Amnesty International, Imgur, Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the ACLU.